WORSHIP AND ADORATION

• The acknowledgement of One Allah as the most perfect being, having the most sublime attributes and free from every defect and deficiency, and the recognition of His relation to the world consisting in His creatorship, guardianship, munificence, compassion and mercy, create a reaction in us which is called adoration and worship.

• Worship is a kind of relationship which man establishes with his Creator. It consists of man's submission to Allah and extolling and thanking Him. It is a relationship which man can establish with his Creator only. The establishment of such a relationship with anyone else is neither conceivable nor permissible.
  

• The acknowledgement of Allah as the only source of existence and the only Master and Lord of everything makes it incumbent on us not to associate any creature with Him in adoration. The Holy Qur'an insists that Allah alone should be worshipped. There is no sin more deadly than associating anyone or anything else with Him.
  

• Now let us see what is worship and what kind of relationship is that which is peculiar to Allah and which cannot be established with any other being.
  

• Definition of Worship
  

• To make the meaning of worship clear and in order to define it correctly, it is necessary to mention two points as a prelude:
  

• (i) Worship may consist either of words or of actions. The former kind consists of a series of words and sentences which we recite, such as praising Allah, the recitation of the Holy Qur'an or the recitation of the formulas normally recited while offering prayers, and pronouncing 'Labbayk' during Hajj.

• The worship which consists of actions is represented by such acts as standing, bowing and prostration in prayers, circum-ambulation of the Holy Ka'bah, and staying at Arafat and Mash'ar. Most of the acts of worship, such as prayers and pilgrimage (Hajj) comprise words and actions both.
  

• (ii) Human acts are of two kinds. Some acts have no remote purpose. They are not performed as a symbol of something else, but they are performed for their own natural effects. For example, a farmer carries out the functions connected with farming in order to secure their natural results. He does not carry them out as a symbol or to express any feelings. The same is the case with a tailor when he is doing his tailoring. When we proceed to school, we have nothing in mind except reaching there. With this act we do not intend to convey any other purpose or meaning.
  

• But there are acts which we perform as a symbol of a series of some other objects or in order to express our feelings. We lower our head as a sign of confirmation, we sit in the doorway as a sign of humility and bow to someone as a sign of reverence.
  

• Most of the human acts are of the first kind and only a few of the second. Anyway, there are acts which are performed to express our feelings or to show some other objectives. These acts are used in place of words to express an intention.
  

• Now keeping in mind the above two points, we may say that worship, whether it is performed by means of words or acts is a meaningful deed. Man by means of his devotion gives expression to a truth. Similarly by means of such acts as bowing, prostration, circumambulation etc. he wants to convey what he says when he pronounces devotionals and liturgy.
  

• Spirit of Adoration and Worship
  

• Through his worship, whether it is performed by means of words or acts, man conveys certain things:
  

• (i) He praises Allah by pronouncing His peculiar attributes having a sense of absolute perfection, such as absolute knowledge, absolute power and absolute will. Absolute perfection means that His knowledge, power and will are not limited by or conditional on anything else and are a corollary of His total and complete independence.
  

• (ii) He glorifies Allah and declares Him free from every defect and deficiency such as death, limitation, ignorance, helplessness, stinginess, cruelty etc.
  

• (iii) He thanks Allah, considering Him to be the real source of everything good and of all bounties, and believing that all favours are received from Him alone. Others are only intermediaries appointed by Him.
  

• (iv) He expresses total submission to Him and acknowledges that unconditional obedience is due to Him. He, being the Absolute Master of all that exists, is entitled to issue orders and we being slaves, it is our duty to obey Him.
  

• (iv) In regard to His above attributes Allah has no associate or partner. None other than Him is absolutely perfect and none other than Him is absolutely free from every defect. None other than Him is the true source of all bounties and none other than Him deserves to be thanked for all of them. None other than Him deserves total submission and to be obeyed unconditionally. Every other obedience like that of the Prophet, the Imam, the lawful Muslim ruler, the parents and the teachers must culminate in His obedience and be subject to His good pleasure to be lawful. That is the appropriate response which a man should show to his Almighty Lord. Except in the case of Allah this kind of response is neither applicable nor permissible.

Ibnu Miskawaih, Bapa Etika Islam

ETIKA ISLAM

• Guru ketiga setelah al-Farabi. Gelar itu ditabalkan kepada Ibnu Miskawaih, seorang ilmuwan agung kelahirkan Ray, Persia (sekarang Iran) sekitar tahun 320 H/932 M. Ia merupakan seorang ilmuwan hebat, bahkan ia juga dikenal sebagai seorang filsuf, penyair, dan sejarawan yang sangat terkenal.Ia terlahir pada era kejayaan Kekhalifahan Abbasiyyah.

• Ibnu Maskawaih adalah seorang keturunan Persia, yang konon dulunya keluarganya dan dia beragama Majuzi dan pindah ke dalam Islam. Ibnu Maskawaih berbeda dengan al-Kindi dan al-Farabi yang lebih menekankan pada aspek metafisik, ibnu Maskawaih lebih pada tataran filsafat etika seperti al-Ghazali.Sejarah dan filsafat merupakan dua bidang yang sangat disenanginya.

• Sejak masih muda, ia dengan tekun mempelajari sejarah dan filsafat, serta pernah menjadi pustakawan Ibnu al-‘Abid, tempat dia menuntut ilmu dan memperoleh banyak hal positif berkat pergaulannya dengan kaum elit. Tak hanya itu, Ibnu Miskawaih juga merupakan seorang yang aktif dalam dunia politik di era kekuasaan Dinasti Buwaih, di Baghdad. Ibnu Miskawaih meninggalkan Ray menuju Baghdad dan mengabdi kepada istana Pangeran Buwaih sebagai bendaharawan dan beberapa jabatan lain. Dia mengkombinasikan karier politik dengan peraturan filsafat yang penting. Tak hanya di kantor Buwaiah di Baghdad, ia juga mengabdi di Isfahan dan Rayy. Akhir hidupnya banyak dicurahkannya untuk studi dan menulis.

• Ibnu Miskawaih lebih dikenal sebagai filsuf akhlak (etika) walaupun perhatiannya luas meliputi ilmu-ilmu yang lain seperti kedokteran, bahasa, sastra, dan sejarah. Bahkan dalam literatur filsafat Islam, tampaknya hanya Ibnu Miskawaih inilah satu-satunya tokoh filsafat akhlak.Semasa hidupnya, ia merupakan anggota kelompok intelektual terkenal seperti al-Tawhidi and al-Sijistani. Sayangnya ia harus menghembuskan nafas terakhirnya di Asfahan 9 Safar 421 H (16 Februari 1030 M).Menurut Muhammad Hamidullah dan Afzal Iqbal dalam karyanya bertajuk The Emergence of Islam: Lectures on the Development of Islamic World-view, Intellectual Tradition and Polity, menjelaskan bahwa Ibnu Miskawaih merupakan orang pertama yang memaparkan secara jelas ide tentang evolusi.

• Seperti ilmuwan lainnya pada era abad ke-4 H dan ke-5 H (abad ke-10 M dan ke-11 M) Ibnu Miskawaih merupakan orang yang memiliki wawasan luas dalam bidang filosofi, berdasarkan pada pendekatannya terhadap filsafat Yunani yang telah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Arab.Walaupun filosofi yang diterapkannya khusus untuk masalah-masalah Islam, ia jarang menggunakan agama untuk mengubah filosofi, dan selanjutnya dikenal sebagai seorang humanis Islam. Dia menunjukkan kecenderungan dalam filsafat Islam untuk menyesuaikan Islam kedalam sistem praktik rasional yang lebih luas umum bagi semua manusia.

• Neoplatonism Ibnu Miskawah memiliki dua sisi yakni praktik dan teori. Dia memberikan peraturan untuk kelestarian kesehatan moral berdasarkan pandangan budidaya karakter. Ini menjelaskan cara di mana berbagai bagian jiwa dapat dibawa bersama ke dalam harmoni, sehingga mencapai kebahagiaan.Ini adalah peran filsuf moral untuk menetapkan aturan untuk kesehatan moral, seperti dokter menetapkan aturan untuk kesehatan fisik.

• Kesehatan moral didasarkan pada kombinasi pengembangan intelektual dan tindakan praktis.Ibnu Miskawaih menggunakan metode eklektik dalam menyusun filsafatnya, yaitu dengan memadukan berbagai pemikiran-pemikiran sebelumnya dari Plato, Aristoteles, Plotinus, dan doktrin Islam. Namun karena inilah mungkin yang membuat filsafatnya kurang orisinal. Dalam bidang-bidang berikut ini tampak bahwa Ibnu Miskawayh hanya mengambil dari pemikiran-pemikiran yang sudah dikembangkan sebelumnya oleh filsuf lain.

• Ibnu Miskawaih menulis dalam berbagai topik yang luas, berkisar sejarah psikologi dan kimia, tapi dalam filsafat metafisikanya tampaknya secara umum telah diinformasikan oleh versi Neoplatonism. Dia menghindari masalah merekonsiliasi agama dengan filsafat dengan klaim dari filsuf Yunani yang tidak menayangkan fokus kesatuan dan keberadaan Allah.Menurut Ibnu Miskawaih, Tuhan merupakan zat yang tidak berjisim, azali, dan pencipta. Tuhan adalah esa dalam segala aspek, tidak terbagi-bagi dan tidak ada sesuatu pun yang setara dengan-Nya. Tuhan ada tanpa diadakan dan ada-Nya tidak tergantung pada yang lain, sedangkan yang lain membutuhkannya. Tuhan dapat dikenal dengan proposisi negatif karena memakai proposisi positif berarti menyamakan-Nya dengan alam.

• Ibnu Miskawaih menganut paham Neo-Platonisme tentang penciptaan alam oleh Tuhan. Ibnu Miskawaih menjelaskan bahwa entitas pertama yang memancar dari Tuhan adalah ‘aql fa’al (akal aktif). Akal aktif ini bersifat kekal, sempurna, dan tidak berubah. Dari akal ini timbul jiwa dan dengan perantaraan jiwa timbul planet (al-falak). Pancaran yang terus-menerus dari Tuhan dapat memelihara tatanan di alam ini, menghasilkan materi-materi baru. Sekiranya pancaran Tuhan yang dimaksud berhenti, maka berakhirlah kehidupan dunia ini.Kitab Taharat al-A'raq merupakan karya yang paling tinggi dan menunjukkan fakta-fakta kompleksitas yang konseptual sekali.

• Dalam karyanya itu, ia menetapkan untuk menunjukkan bagaimana kita dapat mungkin memperoleh watak yang baik untuk melakukan tindakan yang benar dan terorganisir serta sistematis.Menurut Ibnu Miskawaih, jiwa adalah abadi dan substansi bebas yang mengendalikan tubuh. Itu intisari berlawanan pada tubuh, sehingga tidak mati karena terlibat dalam satu gerakan lingkaran dan gerakan abadi, direplikasi oleh organisasi dari surga. Gerakan ini berlangsung dua arah, baik menuju alasan ke atas dan akal yang aktif atau terhadap masalah kebawah. Kebahagiaan kami timbul melalui gerakan keatas, kemalangan kami melalui gerakan dalam arah berlawanan.

• Pembahasan Ibnu Miskawaih tentang kebaikan dengan menggabungkan ide Aristoteles dengan Platonic. Menurut dia, kebaikan merupakan penyempurnaan dari aspek jiwa (yakni, alasan manusia) yang merupakan inti dari kemanusiaan dan membedakan dari bentuk keberadaan rendah.

• Bapak Etika Islam

• Ibnu Miskawaih dikenal sebagai bapak etika Islam. Ia telah telah merumuskan dasar-dasar etika di dalam kitabnya Tahdzib al-Akhlaq wa Tathir al-A’raq (pendidikan budi dan pembersihan akhlaq). Sementara itu sumber filsafat etika ibnu Miskawaih berasal dari filsafat Yunani, peradaban Persia, ajaran Syariat Islam, dan pengalaman pribadi.Menurut Ibnu Miskawaih, akhlak merupakan bentuk jamak dari khuluq yang berarti peri keadaan jiwa yang mengajak seseorang untuk melakukan perbuatan-perbuatan tanpa difikirkan dan diperhitungkan sebelumnya.

• Sehingga dapat dijadikan fitrah manusia maupun hasil dari latihan-latihan yang telah dilakukan, hingga menjadi sifat diri yang dapat melahirkan khuluq yang baik.Kata dia, ada kalanya manusia mengalami perubahan khuluq sehingga dibutuhkan aturan-aturan syariat, nasihat, dan ajaran-ajaran tradisi terkait sopan santun.

• Ibnu Maskawaih memperhatikan pula proses pendidikan akhlaq pada anak. Dalam pandangannya, kejiwaan anak-anak seperti mata rantai dari jiwa kebinatangan dan jiwa manusia yang berakal. Menurut dia, jiwa anak-anak itu menghilangkan jiwa binatang tersebut dan memunculkan jiwa kemanusiaannnya. ''Jiwa manusia pada anak-anak mengalami proses perkembangan. Sementara itu syarat utama kehidupan anak-anak adalah syarat kejiawaan dan syarat sosial,'' ungkap Ibnu Miskawaih. Sementara nilai-nilai keutamaan yang harus menjadi perhatian ialah pada aspek jasmani dan rohani.

• Ia pun mengharuskan keutamaan pergaulan anak-anak pada sesamanya mestilah ditanamkan sifat kejujuran, qonaah, pemurah, suka mengalah, mngutamakan kepentingan orang lain, rasa wajib taat, menghormati kedua orang tua, serta sikap positif lainnya.Ibnu Maskawaih membedakan antara al-Khair (kebaikan), dan as-sa’adah (kebahagiaan). Beliau mengambil alih konsep kebaikan mutlak dari Aristoteles, yang akan mengantarkan manusia pada kebahagiaan sejati.

• Menurutnya kebahagiaan tertinggi adalah kebijaksanaan yang menghimpun dua aspek; aspek teoritis yang bersumber pada selalu berfikir pada hakekat wujud dan aspek praktis yang berupa keutamaan jiwa yang melahirkan perbuatan baik. Dalam menempuh perjalananannya meraih kebahagiaan tertinggi tersebut manusia hendaklah selalu berpegangan pada nilai-nilai syariat, sebagai petunjuk jalan mereka.

• Ia berpendapat jiwa manusia terdiri atas tiga tingkatan, yakni nafsu kebinatangan, nafsu binatang buas, dan jiwa yang cerdas. ''Setiap manusia memiliki potensi asal yang baik dan tidak akan berubah menjadi jahat, begitu pula manusia yang memiliki potensi asal jahat sama sekali tidak akan cenderung kepada kebajikan, adapun mereka yang yang bukan berasal dari keduanya maka golongan ini dapat beralih pada kebajikan atau kejahatan, tergantung dengan pola pendidikan, pengajaran dan pergaulan.''

IBN AL-'ARABI AND HIS SCHOOL

IBNU ARABI - SHORE OF AN ENDLESS SEA

• Speaking about Ibnu Arabi, we now come to the shore of an endless sea, to the foot of a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds: all these metaphors are appropriate to the gigantic scope of the work of Ibn al-'Arabi, one of the greatest visionary theosophers of all time. We must radically alter the false perspective, which stems from some unadmitted prejudice, according to which Ibn al-'Arabi's work signals the end of the golden age of Sufism. Far from this being the case, we may say that this work marks the beginning of something novel and original—so original that it could have occurred only at the heart of Abrahamic esotericism, and, of the three branches of this esotericism, only at the heart of the Islamic.

• The philosophy of the falasifa, the kalam of the scholastics, the asceticism of primitive pious Sufism—all these are swept away in a torrent of unprecedented speculative metaphysics and visionary power. This is the beginning of the 'golden age' of mystical theosophy. As is well known, Ibn al-'Arabi's theosophy and the 'Oriental' (ishraq) theosophy of al-Suhrawardi are related to each other.

• When both united with the Shiite theosophy deriving from the holy Imams, the result was the great flowering of Shiite metaphysics in Iran (with Haydar Amuli, Ibn Abi Jumhur, Mulla Sadra etc.) whose potential even today is far from being exhausted. Ibn al-'Arabi was born in south-eastern Spain, in Murcia, on the 17th Ramadan 569/28th July 1165. His formative years and the years of his apprenticeship were spent in Andalusia. At the age of seventeen, Ibn al-'Arabi had an extraordinary conversation with the philosopher Averroes. There was no further encounter between them until the day when the ashes of Averroes were transported to Cordoba. The young Ibn al-'Arabi was present at this occasion, and he composed some poignant distichs which presage the orientation that he was to give to Islamic philosophy and spirituality. He was strongly influenced in his formative years by Ibn Masarrah's school of Almeria, which propagated the teaching of Ismaili and Shiite missionaries. Later, when Mulla Sadra's school of Isfahan accepted the doctrines of Ibn al-'Arabi, the grandiose circuit of this return to the origins was completed. In the meantime, to remain in Andalusia was intolerable for anyone who wished to reject literalism. Ibn al-'Arabi decided to leave for the East, and undertook a voyage that for him possessed the value of a symbol.
  

• After an admirably full life and a prolific literary output, he died peacefully at Damascus, surrounded by his family, on the 28th Rabi' II 638/16th November 1240. He is buried there with his two sons on the side of Mount Qasiyun, and his tomb is still for many a place of pilgrimage. It is impossible to summarize the doctrines of Ibn al-'Arabi in a few lines. All we can do is to indicate very briefly some of the essential points.
  

• As in all gnosis, the keystone of the system, if the term is acceptable, is the mystery of a pure Essence which is unknowable, unpredictable, and ineffable. From this unfathomable Abyss the torrent of theophanies arises and proliferates, and the theory of the divine Names is born. Ibn al-'Arabi is in complete agreement about this with Ismaili and Twelver Shiite theosophy, both of which rigorously respect the rule and consequences of apophatic {tanzih) theology. Is there a breach between them in so far as Ibn al-'Arabi gives the name of Pure Light to this Ineffable Being, or identifies it with absolute Being, whereas Ismaili theosophy sees the source of being as strictly beyond being—as supra-being? Both interpretations result in a sense of the transcendent unity of being (wahdat al-wujud), which has been so widely misunderstood.
  

• The divine abyss conceals the mystery of the 'hidden Treasure' that aspires to be known, and that creates creatures in order to become in them the object of its own knowledge. This revelation of the divine Being is accomplished in the form of a succession of theophanies characterized by three stages: the epiphany of the divine Essence to itself, which can only be spoken of by allusion; a second theophany which is the sum total of all the theophanies in and through which the divine Essence reveals itself to itself in the forms of the divine Names—that is to say, in the forms of beings such as they exist in the secret of the absolute mystery; and a third theophany in the forms of concrete individuals, which bestows upon the divine Names a concrete and manifest existence. These Names exist from all eternity within the divine Essence, and are this very Essence, because the Attributes which they designate, although they are not identical with the divine Essence as such, are nevertheless not different from it. These Names are known as 'Lords' (arbab) who possess the appearance of so many hypostases.{We may recall the procession of the divine Names in the Hebrew Book of Enoch, or 'Third Enoch'.) In terms of actual experience, we can know these divine Names only through our knowledge of ourselves: God describes himself to us through us.
  

• In other words, the divine Names are essentially relative to the beings which name them, as these beings find and experience them in and through their own mode of being. This is why these Names are also designated as constitutive of the levels or planes of being (hadarat, nazarat, meaning presences or, as Ramon Llull translated it, 'dignities'). Seven of them are the Imams of the Names, and the others are known as the 'guardians of the temple' or templars {sadanah): the theory of the divine Names is modelled on the general theory of the hadarat. Thus the divine Names possess meaning and full reality only through and for the beings who are their epiphanic forms (mazahir). Equally, these forms which support the divine Names have existed in the divine Essence from all eternity; they are our own latent existences in their archetypal state,' eternal haecceities' (a 'yan thabita).
  

• It is these latent individualities which aspire from all eternity to be revealed: their yearning is that of the 'concealed Treasure' aspiring to be known. From this there eternally proceeds the 'Sigh of compassion' (al-Nafas al-Rahmani) which brings into active being the divine Names that are still unknown, and the existences through and for which these divine Names are made manifest in actuality. Thus in its hidden being, each existence is a breath of the divine existential Compassion, and the divine name Allah is the equivalent of the name al-Rahman, the Compassionate, the Merciful. This 'Sigh of compassion' is the origin of amass whose composition is wholly subtle, and which is known by the name of Cloud ('ama): a primordial Cloud which both receives all forms and bestows upon beings their forms, is both active and passive, constructive and receptive. Primordial Cloud, existential Compassion, active, absolute or theophanic Imagination—these words designate the same original reality, who is the created God (Haqq makhluq) by whom all creatures are created. He is the Creator-created, the Hidden-manifested, the Esoteric-exoteric, the First-last, and so on. It is through this Figure that esoteric theosophy in Islam can be situated on the level of the 'speculative theology' which we mentioned above in our general survey.
  

• The First-created (Makhluq awwal, Protoktistos) in the bosom of this primordial Cloud is the Muhammadan Logos, the metaphysical reality of the prophet (Haqiqah muhammadiyah, also called the Muhammadan Holy Spirit (Ruh muhammadi), the source and origin of a theology of the Logos and of the Spirit which reproduces, in the form appropriate to it, the theology of the neo-Platonists, of gnosis, of Philo and of Origen.
  

• The pair Creator-created (haqq-Khalq) is repeated at all levels of theophany and at all stages of the 'descent of being'. This is neither monism nor pantheism; rather, it can be called theomonism and panentheism. Theomonism is no more than the philosophical expression of the interdependence of Creator and created—interdependence, that is, on the level of theophany. This is the secret of the personal divinity (sirr al-rububiya), of the interdependence, that is, between the lord (rabb) and him who chooses him as his lord (marbub), to the extent that one cannot subsist without the other. The diety (uluhiya) is on the level of pure Essence; the rububiya is the divinity of the personal lord to whom one has recourse, because one answers for him in this world. Allah is the Name designating the divine Essence which is qualified by all its attributes, while the rabb or lord is the divine Being personified and particularized by one of his Names and Attributes. This is the whole secret of the divine Names and of what Ibn al-'Arabi calls 'the God created in beliefs', or rather the God who creates himself in these beliefs. This is why knowledge of God is limitless for the gnostic, since the recurrence of Creation and the metamorphoses of the theophanies are the law itself of being.
  

• In this brief summary we can only suggest, not systematize. Ibn al-'Arabi was an enormously prolific writer. As we know thanks to the exemplary labours of Osman Yahya, his works in all number eight hundred and fifty-six, of which five hundred and fifty have come down to us in the form of two thousand one hundred and seventeen manuscripts. His most famous masterpiece is the vast work of some three thousand large quarto pages entitled The Book of the Spiritual Conquests of Mecca (Kitab al-futuha tal-Makkiya), which is at present being edited for the first time by Osman Yahya. This work has been read throughout the centuries by all the philosophers and spiritual men of Islam. The same can be said of the collection entitled The Gems of the Wisdom of the Prophets (Fusus al-hikam), which is not so much a history of the prophets as a speculative meditation on twenty-seven of them, regarded as the archetypes of the divine Revelation. The work itself pertains to the 'phenomenon of the revealed Book', for Ibn al-'Arabi presents it as having been inspired from Heaven by the Prophet. Both Shiite and Sunni authors have written commentaries on it. Osman Yahya has compiled an inventory of one hundred and fifty of them, about a hundred and thirty of which are the work of Iranian spiritual men. These commentaries are not simply innocuous glosses, for although the work of Ibn al-'Arabi aroused fervent admiration among his followers, it also provoked passionate wrath and anathema among his adversaries.
  

• Among other famous commentaries on the Fusus, there is one by Da'ud al-Qaysari (751/1350-1351), a Sunni, and one by Kamal al-Din 'Abd al-Razzaq {died between 735/1334 and 751/ 1350-1351), a famous Shiite thinker, to whom we also owe a mystical commentary on the Quran, a treatise on the vocabulary of Sufism and a treatise on the futuwwah. Mention should also be made of the lengthy Shiite commentary by Haydar Amuli, which is in the process of being edited, and which includes a severe criticism of Da'ud al-Qaysari on a point which is decisive for all the philosophy of the walayah. Two questions arise: how is one to conceive of an integral history of Islamic philosophy before all these texts have been studied? And how long will it be before they have been studied?
  

• There can be no question here of even a brief outline of the history of Ibn al-'Arabi's school. But we must not omit to mention the name of Sadr al-Din al-Qunyawi (meaning from Quniyah or Konia or Iconium, often mistakenly transcribed as Qunawi). Sadr al-Din (671/1272 or 673/1273-1274) was both the disciple and the son-in-law of Ibn al-'Arabi, and his thought was steeped in Ibn al-'Arabi's doctrine. He wrote a number of important works. He is of great interest in that he himself in some sense represents a crossroads: he was in touch with Jalal al-Din Rumi and Sa'd al-Din Hamuyah (or Hamu'i), and corresponded with the great Shiite philosopher Nasir al-Din Tusi, as well as with other shaykhs. None of the texts necessary for an analysis of his thought has yet been edited.

REZA